A School Psychologist Warns Parents about "Blind Trust"

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I am a school psychologist and find parents’ blind trust of "the professionals" frustrating. When a parent tells me that they aren't educated and . . . I remind them that they are THE advocate for their child and encourage them to read and understand their rights because they are the protectors of their son or daughter.

Too often, the results of my work show the child has deficits that require specific remediation. After the student enters a special education program, nothing happens – except regression.

Most student behavior problems (90-95 percent) are directly related to years of inappropriate "remediation" with no positive result. When the child becomes a teen, he (or she) sometimes becomes violent because of frustration and to escape his/her daily failure. If only parents knew the stories that are told in IEPs about test results!

Please continue to educate parents. It is only through loss of funds that schools will become accountable. More and more often, I ask myself how can I continue to work for a system that has such a negative impact on children? Thanks for the ear.

I enjoyed reading your excellent article regarding interpreting assessment results.

Jan